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Tragedy in the Oldman River |
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Written by Delon Shurtz LETHBRIDGE HERALD
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Thursday, 23 July 2009 |
Searchers have yet to find a 27-year-old Lethbridge man presumed drowned while wading with friends in the Oldman River Wednesday.
“It’s our understanding this individual was not a strong swimmer,” said Fire Chief Brian Cornforth, who spent much of Thursday directing recovery operations from a command vehicle parked at the Black Powder gun range in the river valley adjacent to where the man disappeared under the water.
Cornforth said the unidentified man and two friends entered the water near Popson Park Wednesday evening and were walking back and forth across the river as they waded downstream. As they neared Paradise Canyon, the man walked into a deeper part of the water, lost his footing and went under. One of his friends attempted to help him but “lost contact” before he was able to reach him.
The current just south of the Paradise Canyon Golf Resort where the man went under is not strong, and the river isn’t unusually high. And while it looks quite tranquil, that can be deceiving.
“It’s innocent enough, but it took a life last night,” Cornforth said.
Cornforth, frustrated over the preventable drowning, said none of the men were wearing life jackets, which, if they had, would not have turned a seemingly harmless activity into a tragedy.
“No tubes, no life jackets . . . just walking and playing and dying.”
Emergency personnel with Lethbridge fire and rescue searched until dark Wednesday, then, using a boat and raft, resumed the search Thursday morning in the same area.
Incident commander Stan Colenut said divers slowly combed the bottom of the river, sweeping back and forth foot by foot as they made their way downstream. He said visibility under the water was only about one foot looking upstream, and virtually nil looking downstream, which forced divers to search by touch.
“We search every square inch of the bottom,” Colenut said.
Although rescue personnel briefly searched the water above the weir just south of the Whoop-Up Drive bridge, they focused their efforts in the area where the man was last seen. Colenut said in most river drownings, the body sinks immediately to the bottom and moves downstream very little, even in strong currents.
“This isn’t a strong current.”
Todd Hudson, owner of Oldman River Tubing and Raft Tours, says while the river in the Lethbridge area is generally safe, he insists children wear life jackets on his tours and he advises adults to wear them, as well.
“We do all we can to make it as safe as possible,” Hudson said.
He said anyone swimming or tubing in the river should wear a life jacket, even if they can swim, and they should wear something on their feet to protect against rocks and sharp objects on the river bottom. They should also be familiar with the area in which they are swimming.
Cornforth stressed this incident, like most drownings on lakes or rivers, are preventable if proper precautions are taken. And life jackets or other flotation devices are cheap, he added.
“For 15 bucks it could have saved this individual’s life.”
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